Forms: (sense ‘he-goat’) 1 bucca, 2–3 buc, 3–4 bucke, 4–6 bukke; (senses ‘male deer,’ etc.) 1, 5 buc, 3–5 bok, 4–7 bukke, bucke, 5 buk, 4– buck. [Orig. two words, OE. buc and bucca, which became indistinguishable in form after 11th c. So far as the evidence goes, OE. buc was used for the male deer, and bucca for the he-goat, but the instances are so few that it is far from certain that the words were thus distinguished in meaning. OE. buc = MDu. boc, Du. bok, OHG. bocch (MHG. boc, mod.G. bock), ON. bukkr (Sw. bock, Da. buk), all meaning primarily ‘he-goat,’ though in each of the mod. langs. applied to male animals of the deer kind (in Da. also to the ram):—OTeut. *bukko-z. This was adopted (only in the sense ‘he-goat’) in F. bouc, Pr., Cat. boc, OSp. buco (Diez); also, in same sense, as Welsh bwch, Ir., Gael. boc. The extended form represented by OE. bucca (:—OTeut. *bukkon-) appears to exist in ON. bokki ‘my good fellow, old buck’ (Vigf.), but is otherwise peculiar to English. (With OTeut. *bukko- Fick compares Zend bûza he-goat, also Skr. bukka he-goat; but the Teutonic does not phonetically correspond to these. Franck thinks it doubtful whether the word is native Teutonic, or rather an early adoption from some other language.)]
1. The male of several animals.
† a. The he-goat. Obs. Phrase, To blow the buck’s horn: to have his labor for his pains.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Lev. v. 23. Gif se ealdor synʓaþ, bringaþ anne buccan to bote.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 348. Firʓin buccan þæt ys wudu bucca oððe gat.
a. 1131. O. E. Chron., an. 1127. Ða huntes … ridone on swarte hors and on swarte bucces.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 37. Sume men leden here lif alse get oþer buckes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Milleres T., 201. Absolon may blowe the bukkes horn.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (1865), I. 265. A peple þat … beeþ i-cloþed in goot bukkes skynnes.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. (1568), 59. What hath a whyte fruite … to do with the lykenes of a bukkes bearde?
b. The male of the fallow-deer. (In early use perh. the male of any kind of deer.) Buck of the first head, great buck (see quot. 1774).
a. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 119. Ceruus uel eripes, heortbuc.
a. 1240. Cuckoo Song, 10. Bulluc sterteþ, bucke uerteþ.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 45. She sigh … The buck, the doo, the hert.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 55. Buk, best, dama.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 10. The Deare … was a Bucke of the first head.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 3. He sent vs commonly euery day a brace of Bucks.
1774. Goldsmith, Nat. Hist., II. v. (1862), I. 329. The buck is called … the fifth year, a buck of the first head; and the sixth, a great buck.
c. The male of certain other animals resembling deer or goats, as the reindeer, chamois; in S. Africa (after Du. bok) any animal of the antelope kind. Also the male of the hare and the rabbit, (the female being called the doe, after analogy of b.).
a. 1674. Milton, Hist. Mosc., ii. (1851), 484. Being drawn on Sleds with Bucks.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 300. They [rabbits] are distinguished by the Names of Bucks and Does; and the Males are usually call’s Jack Hares.
1879. Atcherley, Trip Boërland, 147. We … came repeatedly across large numbers of buck.
2. transf. Applied to a man (in various associations).
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 3212. Þese berdede buckys also … leue crystyn mennys acyse.
b. A gay, dashing fellow; a dandy, fop, ‘fast’ man. Used also as a form of familiar address.
In the 18th c. the word indicated rather the assumption of ‘spirit’ or gaiety of conduct than elegance of dress; the latter notion comes forward early in the present century, and still remains, though the word is now somewhat arch.
1725. New Cant. Dict., Buck, as, A bold Buck, is sometimes used to signify a forward daring Person of either Sex.
1747. Gray, in Gosse, Gray (Eng. Men Lett.), 90. The fellow-commoners—the bucks—are run mad.
1751. Fielding, Amelia, X. ii. A large assembly of young fellows whom they call bucks.
1763. Brit. Mag., IV. 261. The libertine supposes it [wisdom] consists in debauchery … the buck and blood, in breaking windows.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 341. The dashing young buck, driving his own equipage.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. 82. I remember you a buck of bucks when that coat first came out to Calcutta.
1880. L. Stephen, Pope, i. 12. Proud … at being taken by the hand by this elderly buck.
c. slang. (see quot.)
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, 362 (Hoppe). The bucks are unlicensed cabdrivers who are employed by those who have a license to take charge of the cab while the regular drivers are at their meals.
1865. Morning Star, 14 Sept. What is the prisoner? Constable: He is a ‘buck,’ who hangs about an omnibus stand.
d. A man: applied to native Indians of S. America. Buck nigger, ‘often vulgarly applied to a negro man. Western’ (Bartlett, Dict. Amer.)
1879. Boddam-Whetham, Roraima, 123. Stepping timidly along may also be seen two or three ‘bucks,’ as the natives of the interior are called.
1884. Leisure Ho., Jan., 63/2. ‘Buck’ here [British Guiana] is the name for the South American Indian.
¶ See BUCK sb.7
3. Comb. a. appositive, indicating sex, as buck-fawn, -goat, -rabbit, -rat; b. objective with vbl. sb., as buck-hunting; c. parasynthetic, as buck-hafted (for buck-horn-hafted); also † buck-hide, -hid, -hood, the game of ‘hide and seek.’ Also BUCK-EYE, -HORN, -HOUND, -JUMP, -SHOT, -SKIN, -TOOTH, etc.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., V. 517/2. At the second year the *‘buck-fawn’ or ‘pricket’ puts forth a simple ‘dag.’
c. 1615. Chapman, Odyss., IX. 340. Rams, and *buck-goates.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), I. 333. [Resembling] … even to the very handles *Buck-hafted carving knives.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 13. Whiles would he wink, and play with her *buk-hide.
a. 1568. in Sibbald’s Chron. Sc. Poetry, III. 237 (Jam.). Scho plaid with me bukhud.
1664. Killigrew, Parson’s Wed., II. ii. A *buck-hunting-nag.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 293. The same Dogs are used in Buck-hunting.
1877. Gd. Words, 11/2. Fierce as a *buck-rat.
